Birding Cheat?

Before we went to Ecuador, Emily suggested that I download the Merlin app.  So I did.  But I didn’t have time before we left or while we were there to figure it out.  Then, when Emily and Keiran when here last weekend, Emily spotted a new bird for her list.  That inspired me to head out birding again.  The problem was that with the leaves on the trees now it is hard to see the birds.  But I could hear them.  So I recorded some thinking I would message Emily and ask what they were.  Then I remembered about the Merlin app.

And looky there, they have a way to down load a recording and identify the bird! 

You can also walk around with the id sound on and it will tell you what birds it hears. 

 When I was riding Hugo today, I had my phone in my pocket and by accident was recording on the app.  It identified 22 birds.  I am not sure how accurate it actually is.  It seems to do be better when I downloaded a single bird.  There were several it identified that were not on my eBird list.  So, is it cheating to add those when I didn’t see them?  It sort of seems like cheating to me.  But this spring I did add an owl that I heard while laying in bed.  I didn’t consider that one cheating.  Anyhow, it is a fun app, check it out.